(a) Technical Field
The present disclosure generally relates to a liquid crystal display (LCD) having improved lateral display quality and a method of driving the same.
(b) Description of the Related Art
Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) are one of the most widely used flat panel displays at present. A liquid crystal display (LCD) typically includes two display panels on which field generating electrodes (such as a pixel electrode and a common electrode) are formed, and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the two display panels.
When a voltage is applied to the field generating electrodes, an electric field is generated on the liquid crystal layer. The electric field determines the alignment directions of liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer and controls polarization of incident light passing through the liquid crystal layer, so as to display an image on the LCD.
The LCD further includes switching elements coupled to each pixel electrode, and a plurality of signal lines (such as gate lines and data lines) that control the switching elements to apply a voltage to the pixel electrode.
LCDs may be provided in different modes and configurations. For example, in a vertically aligned mode LCD, liquid crystal molecules are aligned so that their long axes are perpendicular to the upper and lower panels in the absence of an electric field. In particular, the vertically aligned mode LCD has high contrast ratio and a wide reference viewing angle. The reference viewing angle refers to a viewing angle at which a contrast ratio is 1:10, or a luminance inversion limit angle between grays.
For the vertically aligned mode LCD, a method has been proposed to render the side visibility similar to the front visibility. Specifically, the method includes dividing a pixel into two subpixels having different transmittance by applying different voltages to the two subpixels.
However, when a pixel is divided into two subpixels having different transmittance, luminance may increase at a low grayscale or a high grayscale and affect the gray expression at the lateral sides of the display panel, thereby causing picture quality to deteriorate. In addition, when a pixel is divided into two subpixels, transmittance may decrease due to a gap between the two subpixels.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is to enhance understanding of the background of the inventive concept and may contain information that does not constitute prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.